


Stop and Smell the Roses

by poeticname



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Canon Compliant, Future Fic, Living Together, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 03:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2492192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poeticname/pseuds/poeticname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A morning in the life of a twenty-something Golden Pair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stop and Smell the Roses

**Author's Note:**

> This thing is so utterly pure fluff that even I am a bit ashamed. But I finished it and firmly believe there should always be more Golden Pair in the world, so here it is.

Oishi knows he fell asleep on the couch, but he wakes up in his bed.

It's far from an unwelcome change, but it is a disorienting one. Oishi has to sit up and lean against the wall for a moment to get his bearings. But Oishi has never liked dawdling, so once he feels he's collected himself he grapples around for the blinds and tugs on them.

Sunlight fills the room, and the red head of hair beside Oishi groans.

"Good morning, Eiji," Oishi says, smiling down as his boyfriend begins to stir.

Eiji groans again, shifting around so that Oishi can see his face. He's scrunched up his eyes in his effort to block out the sun.

Oishi leans down and kisses his forehead, then starts to get out of bed in earnest.

Instead of following Oishi's stunning example, Eiji rolls over onto Oishi's side of the bed and buries his face in Oishi's pillow.

"You have to get up eventually," Oishi reminds him, opening their closet and shifting clothes around to find something that's his.

"Not for another two hours," Eiji shoots back, leaning up a bit but still drooping and squinting.

At the mention of the time, Oishi feels compelled to check the clock.

"Actually, if you want to go back to sleep you only have an hour and a half. It looks like I slept in." Oishi frowns at that realization. It isn't exactly a big deal, Oishi's schedule has a free hour in the morning for these exact kinds of scenarios, but it still makes him worry.

"It's good that you're sleeping in," Eiji says. "It means I'm finally making a proper university student out of you."

" _Proper_ university students get up early and get to class on time," Oishi ceases his closet browsing by selecting a t-shirt that isn't ridiculously bright.

"No, I'm pretty sure university students are supposed to be lazy teenagers who can legally drink," Eiji slumps onto his side, watching Oishi change. "That's mine by the way."

It fits and looks fine, so Oishi's not going to bother changing, especially with his morning time cut short. He's pretty sure nobody will notice his wardrobe spontaneously expanding again.

Eiji finally sits up and yawns loudly as Oishi puts on some pants. 

"Those aren't mine though," Eiji chimes in, rubbing at his eyes as he brings his feet around to the ground. 

"I know whose pants are whose at least." 

Oishi makes his way to the bathroom to correct whatever happened to his hair overnight. He was sleeping on the couch at some point after all.

Remembering that makes him peer back into the bedroom.

"How did I get in the bed, by the way?"

Eiji pauses for a moment to think on what that means.

"Oh!" with the sentence figured out, Eiji starts closet browsing. "I carried you."

"You did?"

Eiji sees the look of disbelief Oishi's giving him and looks a bit indignant.

"How _else_ would you get to the bed from the couch? You don't sleepwalk, we both know that."

Oishi shakes his head a bit as he looks back to the mirror.

"We're not teenagers anymore. I didn't think I was light enough to carry."

"You are pretty heavy," Eiji admits, coming into the bathroom too even though all he's done clothing-wise is put on a shirt. "But I can manage it."

Oishi takes a break from his hair to raise an eyebrow at Eiji.

"Explain how."

"Like this!" Eiji flexes demonstratively. "I still have muscles from my deliveryman career, see?"

Oishi examines him for a few seconds, then reaches for his comb.

"I see your muscles every day, Eiji, I know you have them. They just don't look impressive enough to carry me, that's all."

Eiji lightly whaps him on the head, on a section Oishi hasn't gelled yet, "Well I can definitely carry you, the fact that you were in our bed proves it. Also, you have basically zero muscles now so you're not allowed to say anything about mine."

"If I had zero muscles, I would be rather grotesque and also dead."

Eiji whaps him again, "It's weird when you're sarcastic with me, don't do it."

Oishi has to laugh at that, "You thought it was delightful when I was sarcastic in high school."

"It was new at the time!"

They both know the bickering's going nowhere, so they brush their teeth. Their movements are almost in unison by the time they both finish. It's been a year since they've practiced tennis regularly, but it's still natural for them to move in sync.

By the end, Oishi's smiling at Eiji again.

"Want me to make breakfast? Your bedhead's going to need some work."

Eiji brings a hand up to his hair and scowls at the mirror.

"Yeah, do that."

Oishi goes to the kitchen, wondering what he can prepare quickly enough while he's running slightly late.

A few minutes later, Eiji pads into the kitchen and Oishi has almost finished frying some fish. The kettle is also on, boiling some water for instant miso soup.

"You still have half your spare hour, you didn't need to rush," Eiji says, pinching Oishi's cheek for a second while he walks by. Oishi doesn't look up from his cooking even slightly.

"Sorry," Oishi pokes at the fish with some chopsticks to check its progress. "You know how I am with schedules."

"Yeah, I know," Eiji circles back beside Oishi and grabs his face, turning it so they can make eye contact. "But you still wait like twenty minutes for your bus when the bus stop is only a block away from our place. It won't hurt you to slow down a bit, okay?"

No matter how much Oishi's internal clock is screaming otherwise, it's nice to hear that.

"I'll try," Oishi says.

Eiji leans in and kisses him. Oishi should probably complain about Eiji comprimising his concentration on their food, but he could never truly complain about kissing Eiji.

He turns back to the fish to find it suitably cooked, and as the kettle beeps in turn, Eiji moves towards it.

Oishi frowns at him, "I thought I was cooking breakfast today."

"Instant miso isn't cooking so I'll do it," Eiji says, bringing down a couple of bowls.

"I'm pretty sure you've argued the opposite before," Oishi places the cooked fish on the cutting board and looks around for a knife and some plates. "Just last week, in fact."

"I'm allowed to change my opinions," Eiji retorts, in the midst of getting the instant miso paste into the bowls. 

"Yes, you're allowed. It just makes your argument a bit less convincing."

"Whatever. I'm still making the instant miso so I win this round."

Oishi turns around to see Eiji pouring the hot water into the bowls. He turns back to his own task, "I guess you do win in that way."

With his soup-making finished, Eiji comes up behind Oishi again, watching him cut the fish over his shoulder.

"Do I get a reward for winning?"

Oishi looks to find Eiji grinning at him, obviously proud of his tactics, and Oishi can't stop himself from smiling either.

This time it's Oishi who comprimises his concentration by kissing Eiji.

Eiji looks ridiculously pleased with himself.

Oishi tries not to get further caught up in his antics and turns back to cutting the fish as Eiji snuggles up.

"Go put that soup on the table," he says, studiously ignoring Eiji's mouth approaching his neck. "I'll have the rest of our breakfast ready in a moment."

Eiji draws back. Oishi can easily imagine the exact pout on his face.

After the promised moment, Oishi turns around with two plates of half a fish and walks over to their table. Eiji has already made himself comfortable, chin in one hand as he watches Oishi approach. 

Oishi sits down across from him, they say "itadakimasu" together, and proceed to eat.

They don't talk much for the first part of their meal. In spite of their earlier conversation, Eiji is still yawning a lot and Oishi is starting to remember that he's running half an hour late.

He rushes through his meal because of it.

Even through his tiredness, Eiji notices. 

"I meant it when I told you to not hurry so much," he says seriously.

"And I meant it when I told you that you know my schedule issues," Oishi replies equally seriously.

Eiji sighs.

"Yeah, yeah," he pouts. "I just think that if I keep telling you you'll listen someday."

Oishi smiles, "Now you know how I feel about you all the time."

"Rude!" Eiji pouts further. "I always listen to what Oishi tells me to do."

Oishi gives him the most skeptical look he can muster while drinking a bowl of soup.

Eiji looks off to the side.

"Okay, maybe not."

Oishi sets the bowl of soup down, amused by Eiji's reaction no matter the conversation surrounding it.

"It's just..."

Eiji has gone back to looking serious, and Oishi looks up, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

"Agh," Eiji looks off to the side, "I just get worried when you fall asleep on the couch."

Oishi can't say he wouldn't be worried either. Eiji, as he always does when agitated, continues to ramble.

"I dunno what sleeping on the couch is really about for you but you only seem to do it when you're really busy and stressed," worry is clearly on Eiji's face now. He's even stopped pouting in favour of a proper frown, "And if you're stressed right now you haven't mentioned it, which gets me kinda mad at myself because I'm your boyfriend and I'm supposed to know these things."

"It's not your fault," Oishi quickly says, remembering the circumstances surrounding his impromptu sleep. "I'm not overly stressed, I was just... Unexpectedly busy last night. I didn't have a chance to tell you about it before I passed out."

Eiji raises an eyebrow, "Explain."

Oishi sighs, realizing now how Eiji is going to think his reason is kind of silly.

"I got cornered by a younger student I've been helping who asked me for extra tutoring and it took a long time."

Eiji reaches across the table and pinches Oishi's nose with his chopsticks.

"Ow! Eiji!"

Eiji does not let go. 

"I know helping people is cool and all but don't do it if you're gonna collapse on the couch later!"

Oishi leans back so Eiji can't pinch his nose.

"Sorry, sorry," he smiles apologetically at the still-pouting Eiji. "Nakata-kun needed more help than I anticipated, and I couldn't just say no to someone who expected me to help them."

"You could," Eiji sits back down in his seat too. "You could pretend you're busy. Everybody does it sometimes."

"Not me," Oishi says with conviction.

Eiji sighs, but it's a small sigh, and it's followed by a smile.

He taps Oishi on the nose this time, "You're impossible."

Oishi doesn't bother arguing that, he just smiles back, "If that means helping others, I don't mind."

Eiji rolls his eyes, "See? Really impossible."

He means it lovingly in this case, so Oishi doesn't argue that either.

The two eat the rest of their breakfast in relative silence, until Oishi catches sight of the clock and heads towards the door.

Eiji frowns at the clock in turn, "Leaving already? You're ten minutes early."

"As you are well aware," Oishi puts on his jacket while he talks, "I woke up late today, so I'm leaving early to make myself not feel like I'll be late for everything else."

"You said you'd try not to hurry though."

Oishi looks over his shoulder to see Eiji looking duly unimpressed.

Normally, Oishi just smiles and tells him that not hurrying is impossible, but now that would be ignoring Eiji's earlier complaints, and he's been very good with saying them this morning.

Oishi strays back for a moment, and as he approaches, Eiji straightens up to allow Oishi to hug him.

"Sorry," Oishi says. His hand nearly automatically goes up into Eiji's hair as he pulls him close. "I'll try not to, since it makes you worry."

Eiji huffs a bit, "That's supposed to be my line. You're supposed to be the one that worries all the time, so don't make me worry about you."

"Yes, yes," Oishi responds, leaning in closer. If he adjusted his head a little, he could check the clock again, but with Eiji so close that doesn't feel important anymore.

"I promise I'll make more of an effort not to hurry," he says, and closes his eyes to kiss Eiji again.

The kiss lasts longer than the earlier kisses of the morning, because it's kind of their goodbye kiss and somewhat an apology and also a bit of a promise. 

That's at least how Oishi thinks of it, and after this long together, Oishi's pretty sure Eiji can tell what it means too.

They pull back for a second. Eiji's the one who lets his eyes stray to the clock.

"You really should go," he says, stepping back from Oishi. "I know I'm telling you not to hurry, but I've already kept you and you'll be annoyed with me later if you're late."

Oishi doesn't bother denying that and gives Eiji a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Goodbye, I love you."

He walks quickly into the entrance way again, pulling on his shoes and picking up his bag.

He looks back at Eiji one more time.

Eiji's leaning on the counter now, smiling softly in that way that still makes Oishi's chest hurt a little.

"I love you too," he says.

Oishi somehow manages to look away.

He leaves their small apartment building, walking down towards his bus stop for his customary wait, and makes up his mind to get home early and spend a lot more time with Eiji than yesterday.

At least for a little while, everything else can wait.


End file.
